Pump Tripping Breaker - Wiring Issue?

[skohon25]

Hello Everyone,

I purchased my home in August 2014. I have never had to touch the pump or any other components as everything turned on fine and worked flawlessly. Just the other day, I noticed the control pad inside the house was completely off. I inspected the breakers and noticed that the breaker had been tripped. I just had an electrician over to test wiring, breakers, etc. He traced the issue to the pump itself. However, he is not comfortable working on pool motors.

The pump is a Whisperflo. I have attached an image of the sticker on the pump itself. I have also attached a picture of the wiring for the pump. He noted that when he unplugs the white wire in the image, the pump will start and the breaker will not trip, however when the white wire is on the breaker trips. The circuit breaker is set up for 230v (double pole) and tested fine by the electrician. I'm not sure if the pump is going out or if it has been wired incorrectly from the start.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
-Steve

 

[SacPoolPros]

It is possible maybe the wire is exposed and touch some type of metal and grounding its self out i would check all the wires.. to be sure

 

[n240sxguy]

I'm usually pretty good with electrical stuff, but I'm kinda at a loss from what I've seen. I'm not sure what the white wire is for unless it goes to a capacitor, and the capacitor is bad. In that case you wouldn't think the motor would start. Unless it's part of a speed switch that disconnects the capacitor, and that is hanging. On a side note, I wouldn't put much faith in an electrician that is scared of a pool pump. It is a basic 120/240v motor. If they had any training at all, it wouldn't be any more scary than a ceiling fan.


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[gtemkin]

My guess is there is an internal short in the motor and disconnecting the white lead is taking the shorted winding out of the picture. The motor may have seemed to have run fine for a short time with the wire disconnected, but it probably would have overheated if ran for more than a short test time. The date code on the motor (BZ in the serial number) says it's from 2004. Might be time.

 

[Boland01]

Two separate times my old pump would shut off and then restart on it's own. The first time a little lizard got in the motor and shorted the contacts. The second time a few years later the pump was actually on it's way out and would overheat (bearing failure). I ended up replacing the old pump and it's been fine since.

 

[Poolguy1]

Is the pump ever slow to Start? Maybe a humming from the motor? Any other devices on the breaker ot relay? (Heater, salt generator)

 

[stebs]

It looks wired correctly, so probably a problem internal to the motor... The liquitite job is lacking though...

 

[valley ranch]

Was it meking noise when it was running? Does it hum before it trips the breaker? If it worked flawlessly it must be wired correctly.

Do you not want to get into the motor yourself?

Richard

 

[JamesW]

At least two of the through bolts that hold the back end on are missing. That would indicate that someone removed the back end at some point. I'm guessing that the bolts sheared off and couldn't be reinstalled. Are all 4 bolts out? When was the back end removed?

Is it tripping due to overcurrent, or is it a gfci breaker tripping due to a ground fault?

Based on the amp draw, the pump is almost definitely oversized unless your pool is huge. It's a 2 h.p with a 1.3 s.f for a total h.p of 2.6.

Based on the serial number, it looks like the motor was manufactured in 2004. That's a pretty good life for a motor.

This might be a good time to replace the pump with a two speed or variable speed. What is your electrical cost per kWh?